Wicked by Jennifer L. ArmentroutMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
2 Underwhelming Stars.
To be completely honest, I don't have the best track record with PNR books over the last few years. Add to the fact that I am not a fan of stories involving the Fae, and I guess you could say I was doomed to not be impressed by this book. And unfortunately that turned out to be the case with Wicked
Ivy is a college student living in New Orleans. She also happens to work for a group called "The Order", who's job is to hunt down Otherworldly bad guys - in this case, the Faerie Folk. One day she's attacked by someone who seems especially badass, and whom she believes was an Ancient...one of the seemingly unkillable (but supposedly extinct) members of the Fae. Her co-workers think she's a bit loopy, or at the very least got hit on the head too hard. Everyone it seems except the Hot New Guy, Ren. Who confesses he works in a super-secret section of The Order, specializing in hunting down the Ancients.
The writing itself was okay. And there were certain things I really enjoyed about the story. I am a huge fan of snarky sarcasm, so I loved most of the banter, especially between Ivy & Tink. Speaking of that smartass little Brownie that lives in Ivy's apartment, Tink was hands down my favorite park of the book. He actually reminded me a little bit of Jenks from The Hallows series by Kim Harrison. Jenks, incidentally, was my favorite part of that series as well. I guess I just have a thing for sarcastic, hot, little dudes.
Moving on....I also enjoyed some of the relationship between Ivy and Ren.
A typical YA leading man is part badass, part sappy romantic, and part frustrating asshat. Ren is not really an asshat, but is a bit too over the top in the "Oh-My-God-You're-So-Beautiful-I-Will-Die-If-I-Don't-Have-You" kind of way. I like a guy who is openly romantic, but Ren pushed it a bit too far.
The storyline involving the hunt for The Ancients, just didn't hold my interest. I found myself skimming a lot of the book in order to get to the sarcastic banter, or to the scenes with Tink. The supposed 'twists' weren't surprising at all in my opinion, and kind of felt like the author took the easy way out and just gave us a cliched and very predictable 'first book in a series' cliffhanger. As a reader, i am constantly frustrated by authors who feel the need to leave their readers hanging. Do they actually think that if the person reading the book enjoyed it - and if there was some kind of resolution to the first part of the story - that the reader wouldn't continue with the series? Leaving us with a cliffhanger isn't the solution. In all honesty, instead of feeling satisfied and happy about a book i just read, most cliffhangers make me angry that i invested all this time in a story, only to be told 'Hey, sorry about this, but i need to make sure you're going to read my next book...so let's leave everything up in the air AND/OR rip the hero/heroine apart for the sake of drama AND/OR set up a potentially life or death situation AND/OR just throw in some unnecessary angst to make the story arc longer and more frustrating for the readers. I really am sorry. But, don't forget to buy the next 6 books in the series!"
That little rant wasn't really directed at this particular author. But i guess reading this book reminded me how much cliffhangers and needless angst bothers me.
While i enjoyed certain aspects of the book...I guess the lesson i learned is that I am just not the audience for PNR YA. I need to stop getting sucked in by Cover Lust and hype. It never ends well.
No comments:
Post a Comment